freeline-95 - Flipbook - Page 20
SHOCKLEADER
CA R P I N
R EC R EATIONA L
F I S H ER I ES SHOW
H I G H RESILIENCE TO
S T R ES S OF CA PTURE
Common carp which are reared
in fish-farms, stocked into
recreational fisheries and then
captured regularly by catchand-release angling show much
lower chronic stress levels than
their wild counterparts that
never see an angler’s hook, a
new study has found.
The findings, published in Plos
One, indicate that although
angling capture can be a shortterm stressful event, repeated
capture does not necessarily
result in high levels of chronic
stress in these fish.
Although previous research
by the team has revealed
Big Carp 18
associations
between
the
amount of cortisol found in
a fish’s scales – a sign of
chronic stress in fish - and the
vulnerability of fish to angling
capture, this was study was the
first to compare scale cortisol
levels
of
hatchery-reared
(domesticated) carp against
wild carp.
Professor Robert Britton of
Bournemouth University led
the study, where scale cortisol
data from domesticated carp in
five recreational fisheries was
compared with data from five
wild populations. Although
some wild carp had scale cortisol
